Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Persian version of Voltaire’s Peter the Great sells at £14,000
16 June 2025This extraordinary Persian manuscript sold by Roseberys (26% buyer’s premium) is a translation of 'Voltaire’s Histoire de l’empire de Russie sous Pierre-le-Grand' and his 'Histoire de Charles XII, Roi du Suede'.
Hans up for sale then knocked down
16 June 2025Scarce complete small pamphlets produced by the fairy tales author Hans Christian Andersen come to auction ‘for first time’
Illustrator also provides a 007 cover story
16 June 2025A fine association copy of Ian Fleming’s You Only Live Twice was sold by Reeman Dansie (25% buyer’s premium) in Colchester on April 30.
Magnificent Iznik tile takes £195,000 price at auction
16 June 2025A rare Iznik pottery tile made for the Çini li Hamam bathhouse during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent sold for £195,000 at Lyon & Turnbull.
Antiques Roadshow expert Geoffrey Munn loans jewellery collection to V&A
13 June 2025Jewellery specialist Geoffrey Munn has placed his personal collection of historical jewels on permanent loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
You wait ages for a George Bullock desk to come along, and then…
11 June 2025Serendipity has it that two Regency pollard oak and ebony inlaid desks attributed to George Bullock (c.1762-1818) come for sale on the same day this week.
Eagle-eyed bidders spot an Art Deco delight at Italian auction
09 June 2025A hitherto unrecorded Art Deco masterwork by Armand-Albert Rateau (1882-1938) caught the eye at an Italian sale.
'UK's largest private collection of antique apothecary objects' comes to auction
09 June 2025What is touted as the UK’s largest private collection of antique apothecary objects will be sold by the Cotswold Auction Company as part of a sale in Cirencester on June 24-25.
Noke plaques take pride of place at US auction
09 June 2025Doulton designs consigned by a descendant demonstrate the ceramicist’s great glaze achievement
Former rectory supplies library of religious works
09 June 2025Bibles from the Mulberry House sold well at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet
Embassy Tableware served as symbol of British pride
09 June 2025In 1962, Lord John Hope, the Minister of Works in the Macmillan government commissioned David Mellor (1930-2009) to ‘supply silver you have designed to every British embassy in the world’.
Games play their part in Essex sale
09 June 2025Nine-strong collection of Georgian and Victorian games counts as a highlight of mixed auction
A selection of splendid cigarette cases
09 June 2025Pictured below are three fine silver and enamel cigarette cases dating from the turn of the 20th century sold at auction in recent weeks.
Silver: York items set to shine in the Michael Baggott collection
09 June 2025The popular dealer amassed an impressive array of items assayed in the city
Birmingham silver ‘toys’ played with practical objects
09 June 2025From the late 18th century, Birmingham was the centre for the making of ‘toys’ – small decorative objects including boxes, nutmeg graters, buckles, caddy spoons, vinaigrettes and rattles, fashioned from silver.
Silver gorilla evolves to double estimate sum
09 June 2025The many models of anthropomorphic primates that proliferated British decorative arts in the 1860s typically reference Charles Darwin’s provocative and often lampooned 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection', first published in 1859.
Light shed on the Arctic
09 June 2025This 2ft 6in (75cm) high five-light candelabrum hallmarked for Sheffield 1844 and the firm Creswick & Co (Thomas, James and Nathaniel Creswick) is both an impressive example of early Victorian table silver and a memento of the heroic era of polar exploration.
Spoon that survived War of the Roses bid over three times estimate
09 June 2025Spoons are among the very few pieces of English silver surviving from the period of Wars of the Roses.
Prof Zacron/Robert Drew was drawn in by British art exhibition posters
09 June 2025As part of a Fine Art auction in Surrey on June 25, Catherine Southon is selling a collection of British art exhibition posters from the estate of Professor Zacron (Robert Drew), the maverick artist best known for the album cover of Led Zeppelin III.